CANTO VI.

and revels, that in comparison with them Sardanapalus and Heliogabalus were temperate Saints (1) ? '

'If there exist in the world' (exclaims Boccaccio) 'people immersed beyond all measure in avarice they are our great Prelates; who give, nay fling away Archbishoprics, Bishoprics, Abbeys, and the other benefices of our sacred Church upon idiots, drunkards, gluttons, and wicked furious men contaminated with every description of enormous vice; and these they are who lead Christendom to hell (2).' This religious poet might well then have expressed himself as he did. But another line of Madame de Stael's 'actions and writings should be judged with a reference to their dates'. may imply that his asperity would have been otherwise directed, had he lived nearer to the present time. Wherever vice appeared with the most triumphant effrontery, thither would have been pointed his dauntless, heaven-inspired pen. Wherever justice was most grossly outraged, whether under pretence of religion, or of civil freedom, he would have resented the profanation: and if it be against pretenders to the former that we find him most emphatic, we shall discern the reason in the date.' The Clergy were the direst offenders during his life: but had they been persecuted in their turn, and exposed to at least as much violence and insult as ever they exerted, there is evidence

(1) Comento, p. 43. (2) Id. vol. 1. p. 49.

CANTO VIE.

enough in this poem to certify that he would have changed his style, though not sentiments; for these were strikingly an union (to repeat my former words) of entire fidelity to his own Church with much tolerance towards that of others (1). If bribery, plunder, extortion, and all the enormities of avarice and debauch were displayed by pseudo-republicans, and free discussion interdicted by pseudo-philosophers, it is them that our poet, who was truly both a philosopher and a republican, would have reprobated: for the context of all his writings justify the assertion, that it was manifestly to the beneficial or pestilential nature of men's actions that he attended, and not to see by what rank or garb the actors were distinguished military or clerical 'whether by toga or cas

sock, bonnet or tonsure (2). '

Virgil, having given a negative to Dante's question whether any of those shades were to be recognised, goes on to tell him of the appearance which their bodies shall present when rising from the grave on the last day. The Avaricious shall be seen with clenched hand' (col pugno chiuso):

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto 11, p. 87.

(2) Sive ille Episcopus, sive sit laicus; Imperator et dominus, aut miles et servus, aut in purpura, aut in serico, aut in vilissimo panno jaceat; non honorum diversitate, sed operum merito judicabitur. Febronius, de statu Ecclesiæ, p. 778.

CANTO VII.

and this is the expression which, I already said, should be understood even of the semblances of bodies (1), the ghosts, after (perchè tieni ?) why keep?' The prodigals shall rise to judgment with bald crowns' (co'crin mozzi ): which may refer either to the Italian they have shaved him' (l'hanno pelato), the proverbial mode of designating a man ruined by his excesses; or else to the medical observation that premature baldness is generally the consequence of a wild, extravagant life. This want of hair is not to be referred to the tonsures, or shaven heads, of the Romish clergy as twice before alluded to in verse xxxix and XLVI. It is only the prodigals that are to rise with 'bald crowns;' whereas the Clergy, though accused both of avarice and prodigality, were more characteristically guilty of the former vice. Then whatever resemblance appear between the figures, this present one has nothing to do with either of the preceding (2).

Q.

LX.

'Evil spending and evil hoarding robbed them

(1) La vanità che par persona. Inf. Canto vi. v. 36.

(2) This resemblance is not much in the Italian. Neither the technical term chercuti, nor coperchio piloso al capo (which is only applicable to the upper part of the head and is thus synonimous with chercuti, ♦ tonsured') has a similar signification with crin mozzi-which last expression refers to the entire head of hair as being cut or torn off. But Mr. Cary's "whose heads are shorn," "that with no hairy cowls are crowned" and "those with close-shaven locks" all seem synonimes.

CANTO VII.

of the beautiful world' is the verbal exposition. Most annotators interpretetbeautiful world', Paradise but some (amongst whom I am one) think it signifies this beautiful, natural world (1). That both misers and prodigals render it a joyless scene with regard both to themselves and others, is most true; for those deprive themselves of pleasure, and these become callous to the sense of it. I have preferred putting this obvious interpretation on the text to that usually given (avarice and prodigality shut all these wretches out of Paradise), because Virgil need scarcely have told that to Dante, who sees them in hell; and besides, it were a repetition of what has been said so often. Indeed when it is added, that, to explain the sadness of their present plight requires 'no varnish of words' (parole non ci appulcro), since it is visible of itself, we naturally reflect that to tell us they are not in Paradise is also superfluous; since we behold them in this Tartarean hell, whose very nature is to be eternal to its occupants. But the passage, as I understand it, conveys a fine moral verity, and one not mentioned before.

R. - LXX.

'In no production of any follower of the Muse (says M. Ginguené) 'is there a picture of Fortune superior to the one now before us, perhaps not

(1) Alcuni espongono mondo pulcro i beni mondani, i quali di lor matura son belli. Landino, Comento, p. 43.

GANTO VII.

even in that fine ode of Horace (O Diva gratum quæ regis Antium) than which there is nothing finer, on the same subject, in ancient poetry (1).' Instead of considering such praise over-rated, I would remove the perhaps. Yet we must reflect that, when Dante wrote, the current philosophy, but particularly astronomy was very different from what it is at present: so that to prevent the passage in question from seeming abstruse, it is requisite to recollect the philosophical system on which it reposes; and for that purpose we may consult Dante's own words in the Convito.

'It is almost uniformly believed that there are several heavens; and that they are directed in their motion by several intelligences, in commoner language spirits, or Angels. That on such subjects little can be positively demonstrated to human reason is true; yet that little (says the Philosopher) is calculated to impart more delight, than the investigations in which we can obtain mathematical evidence. As to the number of heavens, much have opinions varied. Aristotle, and many old astronomers, reckoned the remotest of them from us that of the fixed stars; beyond which it was held there was nothing. Ptolemy perceiving that that eighth sphere or heaven moved with more than a single motion (and being constrained by that philosophical principle, which

(1) Hist. Litt. d'Italie, vol. 1. p. 68.